Toyota today secured their first pole position since a light fuel run gave Ralf Schumacher the team the number one grid slot back at Suzuka in 2005.Both Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock have had strong runs in race conditions and qualifying in the first three rounds of the new season but today at the Sakhir circuit everything clicked for the German-based squad as Trulli claimed the pole, the fourth of his career, from team-mate Glock.
"It wasn’t an easy qualifying I think for everyone but for me it made everything more difficult as after the first run we found out a couple of troubles on my car especially I was struggling with the brakes," the pole-sitter explained. "The pedal was getting longer and longer and I was not able to brake the way I wanted. Nevertheless I did not give up as I knew I had a good car and I could fight for pole, so it was really nice to end up with first and second for the team especially for Toyota.
"To be honest I did not feel very confident for the qualifying lap," Trulli continued. "I have been working quite a lot more on the race pace and I felt more competitive and this is why probably I am on pole as today when we fuelled the car, it felt better."
While Trulli celebrates the pole, it is also a special day for the hard-working team.
"We're obviously delighted with today's result," said the man charged with the TF109 chassis, Pascal Vasselon. "We have been competitive throughout the weekend so we were targeting pole and things went as expected - though the gap to the cars behind us is a bit bigger than we anticipated.
"Tomorrow's race will be very interesting because the tyre situation generates huge differences between the two specs and it opens windows for very different strategies. We already saw yesterday that our pace over one lap and our consistency over long runs has been good. Now we have to convert this perfect start into a result tomorrow."
Timo Glock is currently riding high in the drivers' championship with ten points and fourth position overall. Now in his second full season of Formula One with the team, the German racer is looking to capitalise on his front row starting position.
"We found quite a lot overnight as we struggled yesterday with the brakes quite a lot," he said. "You know overnight we did the right changes to the car and I was really, really happy this morning. I was quite surprised that I was still quickest at the end and I was quite happy for qualifying. I knew when I crossed the start-finish that it would not be enough for Jarno as he is really, really good in qualifying, especially in Q2 getting everything out of the fuel load. I had one mistake in it when I lost a bit of time but at the end I think it would not have been enough for pole but I am happy for the team."
The final word goes to Jarno Trulli. "I feel especially confident for tomorrow. I should not have any problems apart from the fact that we need to analyse the brake and see the situation there."
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